1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an earpad and headphones.
2. Description of the Related Art
Headphones are used for a user wearing them to listen to sounds. Headphones have two (left and right) housings each containing a loudspeaker. On one surface of each housing to be placed opposite to the user's head, an earpad is placed as cushioning that prevents the housing from coming into direct contact with the user's head.
In addition to serving as cushioning, the earpad serves to enclose a space between the housing and the user's ear so as to improve the quality of a sound and prevent a sound from leaking out. There are two types of headphones: enclosed headphones and open headphones, and the tightness of an enclosed space by the earpad is particularly important for enclosed headphones. The enclosure tightness by the earpad is enhanced by an increase in a contact area with the user's head resulting from the deformation of the earpad yielding to the shape of the user's head wearing headphones. A conventional approach to enlarge a contact area with the user's head is to increase the entire size of the earpad.